Construction of the 85-3
Assembling the 85-3, the third 85-foot telescope kit purchased from the Blaw-Knox Corporation. In 1967, it joined the 85-2 and 85-1, also known as the Howard E. Tatel 85-foot telescope, to expand the NRAO’s first array, the Green Bank Interferometer. The GBI was changeable, because these additional telescopes had their own built-in truck wheels to haul them up and down a stretch of road leading from the Tatel. Changing the distance between the 85-footers changed the resolution of the array’s combined view: farther equals higher resolution. By adding a third element into the array, the sensitivity of the array increased.
Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF
